The purpose of the MSTS2Blender is to convert from Microsoft Train Simulator mash/texture format to/from Blender DNA and OGRE mash/texture formats. The reason that Blender format was selected is that it is a free professional quality 3D Graphics editor and specifying it will not create two classes of users for OSRail as in MSTS, those that can afford expensive 3D tool and those that must use free tools.

The program source is in the src/utilities/msts2blender directory. The current status of the project is that it can read most of the MSTS format (mash and textures).

The method used to create the utility is to first create software routines to read all three formats (MSTS, Blender, OGRE mesh) and display them in a 3D OGRE window (OgreWindowManager).

The next step is to build conversion routines between the various formats and OGRE mash format, displaying the result in the OGRE 3D window. With this working the third step in building the conversion utility is to convert from OGRE format to the various formats and testing them in MSTS and Blender. This should create a Utility that can be used both for OSRail and MSTS.

Intellectual property rights should be maintained by attaching the same public/private key signature used as a network id (svn network data base) to the conversion to/from OSRail/OGRE mash format. This is a social method of maintaining intellectual property rights where users as a group will not allow the use of others property in their routes or network game play. See PropertyConfigurer.

There are various existing methods to convert to OGRE mash format using scripts (Python) added to Blender. These would require an OSRail user to become familiar with Python and its interfaces to Blender, transparent in Linux but problematic in Windows. This method also requires multiple steps. So to create a single step and consistent interface for OSRail, this utility will be a stand-alone program producing the three native formats required.